Plot to entrench the Tories in power

It's good that a senior Lib Dem, Chris Rennard, has woken up to the way his party has been made accomplice to a Tory plot to build Conservative hegemony (Beware Tory hegemony, 27 February).

The Orange Book Lib Dems were eager for coalition because of their enthusiasm for neoliberal economics but failed to notice the trap around the cheese: the plot to entrench Tory government. As a result they have eagerly supported all its stages. First, the reduction of the Commons to 600 required a total redistribution. That will cost Labour more seats than the Tories (and incidentally the Lib Dems proportionately more than either). Second, Wales and Scotland, fiefdoms of the left, lost more seats than England. Next individual enrolment will disenfranchise sections of the population likely to vote Labour. The final stage is Scottish devolution. Whatever the outcome of the Scottish referendum, home rule or devo max, it will entail either a reduction in Scottish representation at Westminster or a restriction of the ability of Scottish MPs to vote on "English" issues.

Result? No more Labour governments. Fewer Lib Dem seats. Government by the south east, for the south east, of the south east, forever. Bingo.

This might have been avoided if Clegg had had the guts to insist on proportional representation as part of the coalition deal. He didn't. So, as I pointed out in the redistribution debates, the only way left to stop the plot is to break the coalition before the redistribution comes in and force an election on the existing boundaries. So the question now becomes dare the Lib Dems do this?Austin Mitchell MPLabour, Great Grimsby

• The portrayal of the centre ground of British politics as soft pickings for the political vultures of the left and right, or as an amorphous floating mass easily pulled one way or the other, fails to take into account changes in the body politic since 2010 and the formation of the coalition government.

Jonathan Freedland (The Lib Dem carcass-to-be isn't ready to give up just yet, 25 February) made a passing reference to one change when he referred to "… the Lib Dems' steel on the deficit". Being in government, sharing responsibility for decisions made in the national interest through constant tough negotiations with the Conservative majority party while retaining the distinctive principled policies that make us Liberal Democrats, is producing metabolic change. We are much stronger than many political pundits think we are.

We already have a strong story to tell and are doing so on the ground, door to door, in our communities where we find growing evidence of political change.

I offer no predictions; however the "steel" of the Liberal Democrat party and the capability of the British electorate should never be underestimated.Ian GL JonesChair, Middlesbrough and East Cleveland Liberal Democrats

• Jonathan Freedland's article nails the essential untruths underpinning this Con Dem pact. The coalition has never been other than a conjuring trick from which to expect some kind of convincing, let alone, miraculous outcome would be to face certain disappointment. Cameron has sold us the snake oil with Clegg as his leggy assistant helping to divert closer critical attention from what is now an untrammelled rightwing Tory government very few of us, as far as I know, consciously elected. It is now time for Lib Dems, exhorted in the pages of this newspaper a week before the 2010 general election as the rightful party of progressive ideals by leader Nick Clegg, to join Labour before 2015 and leave this mess behind them. They would be doing "the right thing".GH SimsSedgley, West Midlands

• The public has dismissed the Lib Dems and Labour. I, and I am sure there are many who would agree, feel that they no longer have a vote. I have always voted Labour, and in more recent years it has been not because I believed in them totally, but rather that I regarded them the least bad of a rotten bunch.

When Labour lost the last election, there was so much focus on the the global economy that other areas of Labour policy were ignored. However, the true horror of just how far to the right the last Labour government was has hit home with many – particularly with those graduates who are drowning in debt. They can see Labour as the enemy not as the "friend of the family".

Clegg has also betrayed the younger generation – he could never undo his betrayal of the students – many of whom will be voting for the first time.

For people of the left, there is no one to vote for. The most leftwing politician in the UK (and student-friendly) is Alex Salmond. Maybe he's the man to lead the UK … and for Scotland it would be great, I'm sure they would happily forgo devolution for a UK premiership.Tracy WooldrigeHardwicke, Gloucester

• Jonathan Freedland's amusing suggestions as to how Liberal Democrats should say their prayers makes me wonder if there are Labour activists fervently praying that he is wrong in proclaiming that Tony Blair is "keen to re-engage with British politics after nearly five years away".Rev Geoff ReidBradford, West Yorkshire